Population treated pain and gout burden of Australia through wastewater-based epidemiology

Wastewater is akin to a pooled urine sample containing a wealth of information regarding the chemicals excreted by a population. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been widely applied to measure drug use in many populations around the world. This PhD project aims to develop methods to estimate  population treated pain and gout burden  in Australia through analysing analgesic and anti-gout drugs in wastewater.

Fahad completed his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences in 2014 followed by a Master’s degree in Environmental Sciences in 2016 from Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh. He joined QAEHS in October 2018 as a PhD student. He has an interest in wastewater-based epidemiology with a focus on expanding our analytical chemistry capabilities to measure population consumption to chemicals based on their measurement in wastewater. Fahad is particularly interested in measuring painkiller drugs biomarkers, antifungal drugs biomarkers etc. as well as health biomarkers, through wastewater-based epidemiology approach.